Sunday, July 3, 2016

Sites of old and modern history

Our second day in Lima was filled with a little bit of history
and a whole array of beautiful sites. We started our day with a group breakfast
at the hotel which included coffee, juices, fruits, cheeses, eggs, pancakes
(sin jarabe) and a wide variety of breads – our favorite is the cake that
tastes even better with a little bit of butter. We fueled up for our trip to
the gorgeous Larco Herrera Museum.

The thrill rides offered by the taxi drivers got us quickly
to the museum where we were greeted by the most breathtaking flowered walls; the
colors and designs made us give our cameras quite the workout. Sprawling vines
of reds and purples met the subtle greens of the cacti standing tall nearby.
Even the doors gave pause as we marveled at the aesthetics. We followed the
floral walkways to the entrance to the museum exhibits.

As we entered the exhibit we came face to face with Peruvian
pottery, paintings, tapestries, and jewelry that dated back as early as 2000 b.C.,
with the more modern pieces in the collection dating in the Colonial Era (1532
a.C.). We were lucky to have Dr. Aliaga there to point us to the more poignant pieces,
especially since some of us did not read all of the English translations for
each piece. We were wowed by the intricate scenes painted on pottery that
depicted fearless warriors or were made to honor deities. We also got a glimpse
at domestic tools used throughout different eras and we loved seeing the
jewelry rooms that would put any Tiffany’s & Co. to shame. As hard as we
tried, we could not get our phones to let us face swap into the most stunning
headpiece of the collection. There was one room of pottery that depicted scenes
that would make any mother blush.

In such a beautiful setting we could not bear to eat lunch
anywhere else. We had to eat at the Museum restaurant where we tried new
Peruvian dishes. I had the Lomo Saltado which consists of stir fried beef
tenderloin, onions and tomatoes. This is served with French fries and rice with
corn. It was absolutely delicious. Rodney sat across from me with his order of aji
de gallina. It was a strange yellow hue of chicken stew that looked so good I
stole his dish from him. That is one meal I will have to have before leaving
Peru.

After filling up with lunch we headed back to the hotel to
regroup. We then left for our bus tour of the city. We were able to walk to the
buses and found the John F. Kennedy park full of children, adorable food vendor
carts, and a hoard of cats! The stray cats live in the park and there is
actually a committee that feeds them. We boarded the double decker bus across
from the art being sold at the park and took off to see the hundreds of parks,
homes of influential Peruvians, and the gorgeous views around the city and next
to the beach.

We immediately got into taxis to see a truly unique
experience. We headed to the Parque de la Exposición: Circuito Mágico del Agua.
When we entered the park we saw a tiny locomotive ushering little kids and
their parents around the lighted fountains. Dr. Newcomb, Faneshia, Emily, and I
made a stop at the dog show that was happening right when we got there. We made
it to the main show just in time for the glory of the light, sound, and water
show to begin. Images danced across that water spraying from the fountain—using
the water as a screen—in time with a concert of songs we loved… My personal favorite
was “El Cóndor Pasa”, which I knew from Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over
Trouble Water album. Several of our group members enjoyed a stroll through
an arched water tunnel before running to the center of a fountain that
sporadically starts and stops as you make your way to the inner circle.

We ended out night with a delicious, but chilly dinner. We
ate outside, overlooking the ocean at Mangos at Larcomar. With our stomachs
full, we toddled back to the hotel to get a good night’s for tomorrow's fun at
school.